I Will Never Submit to Miss Grim Reaper - Chapter 281
Chapter 281: Cat Food All Gone, the Comic Convention Bustling
“You’re so… amazing at drawing, aren’t you?”
Lisa, who claimed to have been a psychological counselor in Newcastle for many years, was astonished after seeing the drawing on the hand-drawn screen in Xiao Mo’s hands, which “ended the battle” in less than half a minute. She kept examining the screen, seemingly checking the drawing traces several times, her face full of surprise.
“Did you… draw these in one stroke?”
After inspecting for a while, Lisa turned to Xiao Mo and me, her shock evident in her expression.
“Are these… drawn by AI?”
“AI drawing?”
Yin Xiamo was puzzled. “What’s that?”
“It’s using the AI of the graphics card to draw. You import the captured images and then convert them into a comic style… Wait a minute, the graphics card of this hand-drawn screen isn’t that powerful, and it can’t have AI drawing capabilities…”
Holding the hand-drawn screen, Lisa fell into a pensive state.
“Current AI drawing can’t handle characters’ hands and feet well. The characters in this painting are so well-rounded, their limbs and hands are so well done. It might actually be hand-drawn, but if it is… at this speed, even if something big happened, it wouldn’t be possible…”
“What’s wrong?” Lisa’s words made Xiongxiong curious. She leaned over and glanced at the picture on the drawing board.
“Wow! It’s Nuo’er the cat-eared girl!”
Huh! What!
I instinctively leaned in too.
On the screen, I was dressed in a Cosplay outfit of Dendro Archon Nahida, with cat ears on my head and a cat tail behind me. I was facing a cat climbing frame over a meter high, leisurely sharpening its claws, looking completely content.
Normally, even if an ordinary person stretches, they wouldn’t bury their body so low, but cats would. Most little cats, when they wake up or want to stretch their bodies, arch their backs, stretch out their front paws, and gracefully curve their entire body downward like flowing water, forming a very beautiful arc.
In the picture, that’s exactly the pose I was in, showcasing the elegant waist and flexible ligaments of a girl to the fullest. Even I felt a flutter in my heart when I looked at it.
This movement is obviously something only someone who has seen a lot of cats would know, and this person has an astonishing understanding of the beauty and curves of the female body.
But the problem is… I didn’t just pose like that, nor did I wear cat ears, and there certainly wasn’t a cat tail behind me.
Seeing Xiongxiong bring the cat climbing frame over, I just symbolically scratched it with my claws.
“Xiao Mo!”
Subconsciously, I turned around when I realized something.
“What the heck are you drawing?!”
The art style of “Nuo’er at the comic convention” on the hand-drawn screen was unexpectedly not realistic but closer to a Lolita style reminiscent. From what I know of artists, it’s somewhat like a combination of the styles of “Maoyun Niuru” and “Gyunyu No Mio”, with a blend of devilish evil and the innocence and kindness of a naive little girl. [1]
Moreover, compared to those two artists, Xiao Mo’s painting seemed to have a higher “completion level”. Various textures and highlights on the skin were added, giving the impression of a work that “breaks the fourth wall”.
There also seemed to be a touch of the style of the artist “MANA” in it, but perhaps because there was no coloring tool used or time was insufficient, Xiao Mo’s painting only had two colors, black and white.
“It’s just a copy.”
Facing my “questioning”, Yin Xiamo in front of me looked innocent.
“Didn’t we agree to try out this board? I’m using it now, and it feels pretty good, so I’ll stick with it.”
“Have you been studying art for a long time?”
Unlike my usual calm demeanor, Lisa seemed unable to recover from the fact that “someone completed a painting in less than half a minute.” She asked Yin Xiamo tentatively, “Can you tell me where you learned to draw?”
“I taught myself.”
Yin Xiamo replied matter-of-factly.
“I used to draw landscapes casually when I had nothing else to do, and after I got together with my lover… I tried learning human anatomy.”
Xiao Mo wasn’t lying about this. Whether it was about drawing or love… Although from the outside, Xiao Mo, Fei Luo, and Gabriel didn’t seem much different from ordinary people, at most they appeared to have almost perfect figures as girls, outstanding looks, and exceptionally good skin. But even in terms of “physical fitness,” they were quite different from Earthlings.
It’s like the feeling of using electronic computers from a long time ago. Back then, everyone commonly used bulky monitors, old keyboards paired with rollerball mice, CPUs were outdated, with only 256MB of memory. And Fei Luo and the others are like modern computers, even the cheapest ultrabooks today can outperform any civilian machine from back then.
When playing FPS games, ordinary people would take a split second to react when an enemy appears on the screen. They’d then command their brain to move the mouse, align the crosshairs, shoot, and then spend nearly a second adjusting the aim to follow the enemy’s movements. Some people’s brains couldn’t keep up, causing them to panic and become disoriented.
But Fei Luo’s time from seeing an enemy to reacting is significantly shortened. It’s almost as if the moment she sees an enemy, her crosshairs lock onto them. She can shoot while perfectly controlling the recoil and tracking the enemy’s movements. Plus, most of her brain’s “CPU resources” are idle, so even if something unexpected happens, she can handle it perfectly.
Xiao Mo is the same. When I watched artists livestreaming their drawings on Tongmeng Net, most of the lines couldn’t be drawn in one stroke. The artists often had to make numerous corrections. For example, to draw a person’s leg, they needed to draw a line countless times. If they weren’t satisfied, they’d use CTRL+Z to undo the previous action and continue drawing lines until it was perfect.
But I feel like Xiao Mo’s approach to drawing is… she just glances at the picture, memorizes the whole thing, and then draws it all in one go based on memory.
With absolutely precise hand control and brain processing, Xiao Mo can make each stroke perfect without the need for corrections. She skips the “draft” stage entirely, what comes out is the “line draft.” How could she not be fast?
“Taught yourself?!”
Xiao Mo’s words completely shocked Lisa.
“Child, if you’re completely self-taught, then your talent…”
“Excuse me! I’ve brought the four White Shark No. 14s you wanted!”
As we were talking, the young man who had just left came running back with four large boxes.
It wasn’t until then that I noticed he seemed to be the owner of the nearby audio store.
“1600 yuan, miss, WeChat or Alipay?”
As if afraid Lisa would change her mind, the young man placed the boxes on our table and immediately took out his phone.
“We’re taking a loss today, a complete loss. Let’s just consider it making a new friend.”
“WeChat, please. I’ve just learned how to use WeChat in this country.” Lisa also took out her phone.
“Do you mind if we test the goods on the spot?”
“Not at all, feel free.”
The young man gestured towards the four large boxes. “Please, go ahead and test them.”
“Hey dear, come help.”
Lisa set the hand-drawn screen aside and waved at us. “One for each of you, consider it a treat from big sister!”
One for each of us… Audio equipment?
In my mind, I pictured the old audio system at home, which I’d been using for who knows how many years.
Nowadays, the computer in our house, except for the main hardware components, can all be classified as “antiques.” Things like the monitor, keyboard, and speakers are actually considered “vintage,” I guess even the oldest tech-savvy folks would shake their heads at them when they see them.
When I was alone at home before, I did consider buying speakers or headphones, but just the thought of these things being touted online as “listening for less than ten thousand yuan” made me decide to make do with what I had.
I never expected to unexpectedly acquire some today.
Speaking of which, wouldn’t headphones also fall under the category of “listening”? They look pretty high-tech too.
I cautiously approached the small table and watched as Lisa peeled off the protective film from one of the boxes and carefully took out another “terrifying robot” from inside.
“This thing won’t bite… or suddenly explode, right?”
After examining the two “terrifying robots” on the table for a while, I instinctively asked, “They just seem so dangerous.”
Although I knew it was a speaker, just looking at it, this thing really gave off a scary vibe!
Leaving aside the fact that it’s designed as a terrifying robot, let’s not even mention the fact that when powered on, there are red lights on all three legs, and the thing in the middle, resembling a turbine, is designed to look like an abyss. It even holds a Gatling gun! Just by its appearance alone, it really gives you the intuition that it could jump up at any moment and come at your head.
What kind of mindset did the designer have when they made the speakers look like this, huh?
“No, that’s impossible.”
Under my gaze, the young man selling the speakers looked at me with eyes like a kitten.
“Don’t worry, little sister. It just looks a bit scary, that’s all. But don’t you think it’s cool?”
“Don’t mind it, kittens look like this.”
Yin Xiamo also came over, patting my shoulder, then pulling me into a hug from behind.
“She’s a bit timid.”
Timid? Me…?
“If this thing had such exaggerated functionality, it wouldn’t only be selling for 400 yuan. It’d need two more zeros, and you wouldn’t even be able to buy it for 40,000.”
After patting the head of this terrifying robot, she pressed the power button and made a few settings on her laptop. Lisa tried playing a song, saw no issues, and nodded.
“Include this in Mr. Tom’s promotional expenses.”
Then, the young man’s phone rang with the notification sound of “WeChat received 1600 yuan.”
“Great!”
Xiongxiong tactfully handed two large boxes to me and Xiao Mo.
“Nuo’er, Xiao Mo, it’s a gift from Sister Lisa, accept it!”
“Well, um…”
I hesitated a bit. “Is this really okay?”
“Of course! I promised you earlier, didn’t I? We’re giving you a computer from our company, but I didn’t say it was just the computer, did I?”
Xiongxiong had a generous demeanor. “It includes the monitor, keyboard, mouse, and of course, this speaker as well. When we go back later, I’ll just tell my dad it’s the expense for hiring external assistance.”
Ah… well, in that case.
Even if Xiongxiong hadn’t said it, I knew deep down that with our recent “rescue performance” with Xiao Mo, giving us a computer and two speakers really wasn’t a problem.
Similar situations happened on Tongmeng Net. Some dancers would regularly upload dance videos and gradually become “specially invited dancers” for Tongmeng Net. When the website hosted events or conventions, they would invite these dancers to perform on stage or hold fan meetings. As long as they showed up, their fans would come along to play. It was like… leveraging the popularity of these fans to attract traffic.
If I remember correctly, internet-famous dancers with millions of fans could charge tens of thousands to hundreds of thousands for appearances. Although Xiao Mo and I weren’t “celebrities”, strictly speaking, we could still charge tens of thousands for appearances. So it was quite reasonable for Xiongxiong to give us the hand-drawn screen and computer.
“I’ll bring these two when I take you back later.”
Probably seeing that the backpacks behind Xiao Mo and me were too small to fit the speakers, Xiongxiong set the two speakers aside.
“Do you want to take a look over here? See if there’s anything else you’d like to buy?”
“N… no need, we’ll just wander around on our own.”
I put the hand-drawn screen back into the box and placed it on the table. Then, I took Xiao Mo’s hand. “You’re too kind!”
Like Xiao Mo and Gabriel, I’ve actually noticed a slight difference in my body compared to ordinary people during this time.
For example, when typing on the computer, my fingers are more agile and precise than ordinary people. When working at the café, my body control and strength are much better than those of the “uncle” I was before. These are all things I’ve gradually noticed as I’ve adapted to this body over the past two months.
According to Xiao Mo’s explanation, I’m slowly adapting to becoming a girl, and this newly “awakened” body has also begun to grow.
In Xiao Mo’s estimation, in about two or three hundred years, I’ll have reaction times in FPS games similar to Gabriel’s, and I’ll also have pen control skills similar to Xiao Mo’s when drawing. My thinking will be sharper in everyday life, and my brain’s efficiency will be higher. But that’s two or three hundred years from now. Right now, I’m just slightly stronger than an ordinary person.
For now… I’ll just enjoy life. At least, that’s what I think.
I came to the comic convention today hoping to have a good time and explore a bit with Xiao Mo. After two months of serving customers every day at the café, we were both pretty tired.
“Okay, you guys go explore. I’ll go back to the stage and help out.”
Sikong Yue took out the bear plush toy, controlling the bear’s mouth to open and close.
“We’ll have an activity in half an hour! It’s a truth or dare challenge for couples and families. People with high scores can even win various prizes. Will you join?”
I became interested. “Can everyone participate?”
“After our product launch ends, some people will perform a few acts, and then the activity will start. You need to sign up to participate.”
Xiongxiong smiled. “If you’re interested, I can help you sign up.”
“What do you think?”
For some reason, I remembered losing twice in a row in the “truth or dare challenge” at the café before. I turned to Xiao Mo beside me.
“Do you want to go?”
“If Little Kitten likes it, I’m in!”
Yin Xiamo stood behind me, reached out, grabbed my chin, and then skillfully scratched it with ten fingers.
“Sign us up.”
“Hey!”
I protested. “What’s the meaning of scratching like this? I’ve told you I’m not a cat!”
“But it feels nice, doesn’t it?”
“Well… I guess.”
“Haha…”
Xiongxiong chuckled lightly. “You two have such a good relationship.”
“It’s not good at all. She always bullies me at home.”
I grumbled, “What’s most frustrating is, I can’t do anything about her!”
“Well, you two cuties, I’ll keep an eye on your speakers and hand-drawn board for now,” Lisa sat down on the chair.
“Remember to take them back later, Little Yue.”
“Got it!”
“Sikong Yue, Lisa, we’re going to play first.”
Waving to the two, I pulled Yin Xiamo. “Let’s go!”
“Oh…”
The girl beside me snapped out of it. “Shouldn’t we do that again?”
I was dumbfounded. “Do what?”
Yin Xiamo stretched out her hands. “Let’s all dance the Capucine!”
I instinctively extended my hands too. “The pantry’s empty at home, neighbors have plenty…”
And then, in front of everyone, we ended up clapping hands together. “But we can’t eat… Yay!”
“Nuo’er is becoming cuter and cuter!”
As the sequence of movements ended, Yin Xiamo hugged me tightly.
“I really want to eat you up right here!”
I was rendered motionless in her embrace.
“No… No, we can’t, there are so many people here…”
“Are you saying if there were no people, it would be okay?”
“No, even if there were no people, it wouldn’t be okay!”
“Aww… so sad…”
She released her hold, and the girl in front gestured toward the crowd taking photos together.
“Let’s go over there and take a look. Nuo’er, use your cuteness to charm all those mortals to death!”
“I can’t help feeling like bringing you here today was a mistake…”
“……”
……
TL Note:
Maoyun Niuru and Gyunyu No Mio are both artists.
Maoyun Niuru’s art style:
Gyunyu No Mio’s art style:
